Heel-blank separator, and method of and apparatus for using same



DY. PARKS.

HEEL BLANK S'EPARATOR, AND METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR USING THE SAME.

APPLICATION HLED DEC-12,1919.

1 ,38 1 ,7 35 Y Patented June 14, 1921.

fiu'wzion Zennz's Parks.

UNITED STATES P AT ENT OFFIQE.

DENNIS PARKS, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

HEEL-BLANK sErARA'roR, AND METHOD or AND APPARATUS ron USING SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 14, 1921.

Application filed December 12, 1919. Serial No. 344,288.

1 0 all 10 ham it may concern:

Be it known that I, DENNIS PARKS, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented new and useful Improvements in HeeLBlauk Separators, and Methods of and Apparatus for Using Same, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the art of building heel blanks for making what are known as decked heels.

The invention has for its general object to enable heel blanks of this character to be manufactured in a simpler and more reliable manner than has heretofore characterized the production of this article.

In United States patent to Mitchell, lVolfe and Parks, No. 1,352,302, granted Sept. 7. 1920, there is described a machine for use in making decked heel blanks. In building heels on this machine the lifts are assembled on the top of the log holder, the latter is then moved under a plunger and theheelblank is pressed into the log holder and nailed. It has been found in practice that while this machine possesses many points of superiority in operation over prior methods of procedure, it has certain defects which it is the purpose of the present invention to overcome. One of these defects isdue to the fact that the heel blank is assembled on the top of the preceding heel blank which has been forced into the holder. As a result it was found difficult to build the heel blank accurately to scale, as, due to the swelling, or expansion, of the heel blanks forced into the holder, there would be differences in the heights of the heel blanks built thereon. That is to say, as the heel blanks are built up to a definite height, regulated by a gage on the holder, and as the base of each heel blank would be a preceding heel blank, the expansion of the latter after compression in the log holder would vary the distance be tween such heel blank and the top' of the gage and cause the heel blanks built in this space to be of less height than the gage called for. Furthermore, as the expansion of the heel blanks in the holder is not uni form, the resulting heel blanks would not be uniform in height.

One of the objects of the present invention, therefore, is to provide means whereby the heel blank may be built accurately to a given height determined by a gage, and thereafter forced into the log holder, so that all of the heel blanks will be of the same height.

Again, in the case of the machine of the patent above referred to, it is contemplated that the heel blanks as formed shall be forced into a holder to form a continuous log of separated heel blanks, and owing to theneeessary angular disposition of the lifts in a decked heel, wedge plates having a' proper incline on one side to compensate for the inclination on the bottom side of the heel blanks, were used. So far as this operation is concerned, heel blanks may be rapidly and satisfactorily assembled and forced into and through the holder without disarrangement of the lifts where, as is contemplated in said machine, the heel blanks are nailed after being assembled. It frequently occurs, however, that manufacturers desire to make decked heels without nailing them, relying solely upon the paste to hold the lifts in their assembled relation. In the manufacture of such heel blanks, that is without nails, it was found, in using the wedge plates, that when the heel blanks were put under compression in the holder it would frequently occur that some of the lifts in the heel blanks, especially those of a wedge shape, would be forced out of position, being slippery from the paste employed, and hence an irregular-shaped heel blank would result.

It is a further object of the present invention, therefore, to enable decked heel blanks to be forced into a holder and to insure that the lifts shall be held in their proper assembled relation during the passage of the blanks through the holder, or, in other words, until the paste has set.

This object I attain primarily by the use of a separating member which is shaped to embrace the rear or curved surface of the heel blank so that when the said member and heel blank are forced into the holder the separating member will engage one wall of the holder and by pressure upon the rounded side of the heel blank will force the breasts of thelifts into firm engagement with the breast plate, or flat side of the holder, and such position will be maintained as each member and heel blank is forced downwardly into the holder by the addition of successive heel blanks to the column. T he separating memher being of a size and shape to snugly em brace the rounded portion of the heel blank throughout the entire height of the heel blank there is no possibility of the lifts becoming displaced.

A further object ofthe invention resides in a novel manner of assembling the lifts whereby said lifts are initially built upon a support having an inclined surface so that the bottom or wider portion of the heel blank will be inclined to the vertical while the upper, or smaller end will extend at a rightangle to the vertical or belevel; and to employ a separating member which shall present an inclined surface at its upper end corresponding to the incline of the bottom of the heel blank so that each successive heel blank forced into the holder may be readily superimposed upon a preceding separating plate without changing the relative angular disposition of the heel blank.

lVhile it is contemplated that the decked heel blanks will be built in a machine similar to that disclosed in the patent to Mitchell, Wolfe and Parks above referred to, but

, modified to overcome the defects above referred to, for the purpose of the present case, I have illustrated simple mechanism by which the method may be practised by hand.

- holder;

Fig. 3is a View in side elevation showing one of my improved separating members with the heel blank mounted therein;

Fig. 4 is a view in front elevation of one of the separating members; and

Fig. 5 is a central vertical section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Referring now to the drawing, the numeral 6 indicates, generally, a holder, such as used'for receiving a log, or a column of heel-blanks and comprises a rear member formed of two angle bars 7 and S for engaging the rear, or rounded side of th separating members,'and a front member or breast plate 9 having, as usual, a flat side against which the breast of the heel blanks and a corresponding straightportion at the 7 top of eachseparating member are designed to engage, the engagement of the separating member being largely for the purpose of guidance without causing excessive resistance to the passage of the separating member through the holder. Mounted at the upper end of the holder 6, by means of a bracket arm 10 on the breast plate 9, 1s a support 11, which may be given any desired incline relative to the holder 6 by means of an adjusting screw 12. Slidably mounted on guide-ways 13, provided on opposite sides of the support 11 is a s1ideblock 14:, which may be provided with a handle 15 for operating it. On its forward end this slide-block has mounted thereon a heel-gage 16, the bottom of which slides over the upper flat surface of the support 11. In operation, the lifts constituting a heel blank 17 are built up wit-h their breast edges against the heelsgage 16, and the latter may be 'adjusted, as usual, to enable heel-blanks of any desired height to be accurately built. As will be seen the support 11 is inclined to tl e vertical, or downwardly toward the holder 6, and in building up the heel blank the bottom lift 18, (Fig. 3) will correspond to the incline of the support, while one or more succeeding wedge-shaped lifts, such as indicated at 19, (Fig. 3), are employed to bring about a true horizontal position to the upper lift, or surface of the heel blank. 95 Each lift is, of course, supplied with paste and when assembled as shown in Fig. l a separating member 20 is placed on the heel blank and the slide block 14 is then pushed forward to move the heel blank with its separating member over the opening at the top of the holder 6. in order to force the heel blank and the separating member downward in the holder I show a plunger 21 supported on a stem 22 and a handle 23 provided with a slotQ awhich engages a pin 25 on said stem, the handle being pivotally mounted at its inner end at 26 on a suitable fixed support indicated at 27. By depressing this handle the plunger 21 will be lowered into engagement with the top of the separating member and force the same with its. heel blank into the holder 6.

The separating member referred to is preferably cast as a unitary device and comprises an upper portion in the form of a plate 28, having a straight edge portion 29 at its forward side, and having its side and rear walls rounded, as indicated at 30, to conform in a general way to the shape of a 1 heel lift. Projecting downwardly from op.- posite sides of the rear or rounded portion 30 of the portion 28 are two legs 31 the forward edges of which are inclined rearwardly, as indicated at 32 in Figs. 3 and 5, and adjacent said. inclined edge being provided with a substantially flat interior bearing surface 33 extending from top to bottom of the leg, which is the portion of the e adapted Q e g the rounde portian of the heel blank. The plate 28, relative to its position on the heel blank as shown in Fig. 3, has its upper surface 3 inclined rearwardly and downwardly, corresponding to the incline of the support 11, and its under side which, as shown by Fig. 3, engagesover the-top of the heel blank, extending in a substantially true horizontal plane. Thus, when the heel blank 17 has been assembled, the upper side of the blank being in a true horizontal plane, when the under side of plate 28 rests upon the same, the upper surface 34 of said plate will be inclined in a plane parallel with the incline of the upper surface of the support 11. Thus, as will be observed from an inspection of Fig. 1, when a heel blank 17 is moved over by the slide block 14: it will rest upon and be flush with the upper surface 34 of a preceding separating member, which surface, in turn, will be flush with the upper surface of the support 11. As will be seen from an inspection of Figs. 3 and 4:, the outer surface of a portion of each leg 31 is substantially flush with the rounded edge 30 of the plate 28, from which they project downward in a vertical plane, as indicated by the imaginary line 36 in Fig. 3, so that when positioned in the holder the rounded portion of the plate and the outer side of the legs will engage the angle bars 7 and 8 and the straight edge portion 29 of said plate will engage the surface of the breast plate 9, so that said separating member will be maintained in a correct position in its passage through the holder. Normally, and as indicated in Fig. 3, the breast of the heel-blank will project slightly beyond the surface of the straight edge 29, so that the breasts of all of the lifts may be forced flush against the flat surface of the breast plate 9, and besides engage such surface to afford the requisite amount of frictional resistance, when combined with that of the separator with the angle bars 7 and 8, to support the various heel-blanks and separating members in the holder. From an inspection of Figs. 3, 4: and 5 it will be understood that the incline of the surfaces 33 correspond with the incline of the rear or rounded side of the heel blank, so that when the separating member is in position on the heel-blank and pressure is applied on the top of the separating member by the plunger 21. the tendency will be to force the breast side of all of the lifts in the heel-blank against the flat surface of the breast plate 9 and thus make a true alinement of the lifts. At the same time, the legs 31 by thus engaging the rounded portion of the blank on opposite sides thereof operate to securely hold each lift of the blank in position and, to a considerable extent, operate in the manner of a heel-former, or mold, to correctly shape the heel-blank SQ far as lateral displacement of the lifts is concerned, as well as to maintain the lifts in position during the time the heel-blank is in the holder.

I claim:

1. A unitary separating member for decked heel blanks insertible in a log holder for containing a column of such blanks comprising a plate adapted to have its under side, relative to the position of the separating member in the holder, rest upon the top of the heel-blank and its upper side support the bottom of another heel-blank, and members depending from the plate at opposite sides of one end thereof and having inner faces for engaging the rounded portion of the heelblank.

2. A unitary separating member for decked heel-blanks insertible in a log holder for containing a column of such blanks comprising a plate having, relative to the position of the separating member in the holder, a level under side for resting upon the top of the heel-blank and an inclined upper side for supporting the inclined bottom of an other heel-blank, and members depending from the plate at opposite sides of one end thereof and having inclined inner faces for engaging the rounded portion of the heelblank.

3. The method of building decked heelblanks, which consists in assembling pasted lifts to form a heel-blank tapering on its rounded side from base to top, confining said blank at its top and rounded side, and successively forcing blanks while so confined into a holder in column formation.

4. The method of building decked heelblanks, which consists in assembling pasted lifts on an inclined support to form a heel blank tapering on its rounded side and havin an inclined base and level top, confining sald blank at its top and rounded side and thereby providing an inclined surface for receiving the base of another heel-blank, and successively forcing heel-blanks so confined into a holder in column formation.

5. The herein-described means for assembling in column formation-a series of decked heel-blanks, each blank having an inclined bottom and tapering upwardly therefrom on its rounded side to a level top, comprising separating members adapted to be mounted on said heel-blanks each of which members comprises a plate having a level under side for resting upon the top of the heel-blank, an inclined top, and members depending from the plate at opposite sides of one end thereof shaped to engage the tapered portion of the heel-blank, a holder for a column of heelblanks and applied separating members, and means for forcing a plurality of heel-blanks and separating members successively into said holder.

6. In combination with a holder for a column. of heel-blanks, an inclined support leading to the mouth of said holder and on which lifts are assembled to form the heelblanks, a separating member shaped to engage the top and the rearrounded portion of each blank and when so positioned having an upper flat surface substantially parallel With the inclined surface of the support, means for moving the heel-blank into position over the mouth of the holder, and means for forcing the heel-blanks With the separat- 1o ing members thereon successively into said holder, whereby each succeeding heel-blank will have its inclined bottom resting upon the inclined surface of the separating mem ber of a preceding heel-blank.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set m hand.

y DENNIS PARKS. 

